I'm Sioux Roslawski and this is my blog about writing, dogs, grown-up children, menopause, the joy of a marvelous book, classroom teaching in general, and specifically, the teaching of writing. You can email me at sroslawski(at)yahoo(dot)com.

The Pyrenees---Southern France

Thursday, January 21, 2016

A Grandma's Wisdom

I used to think my grandmother--the one I knew the best--was soooo not with it. I was a pre-teen and then a teenager, and knew everything. Or so I thought. My grandmother quilted and crocheted and knit and baked, and she did it all at lightning speed. There were occasional moments of levity over her projects (never in front of her). She got to the point where pins would accidentally get sewn into the layers of quilts. It was like a more pointed version of the "King Cake" (the one where you're lucky if you find the tiny plastic baby in the cake around Mardi Gras). Before you fell asleep, you quickly found the pin, and would work to weave it out of the batting and stitches and cotton fabric. I couldn't learn the handwork my grandmother did from her. She wasn't a patient teacher and was unable to slow down or explain. Years after she died, I learned to quilt from my mother (who had learned from someone else other than her mother) and learned to knit--the left-handed or German way (even though I'm right-handed) from her sister. This past week, something that my grandmother said over and over--something that I thought was totally silly--came back to bite me in the butt. I was knitting a scarf with variegated yarn. I'd bought three skeins, found I needed a couple more, and when I went back to get some more from a different store, as I continued to knit, I found that the yarn didn't quite match. It was close, but off enough that it bugged me.Make sure it's all from the same dye lot. My grandmother would meticulously check the dye lot numbers when buying yarn. Inside I'd laugh, figuring machines made it, it was all the same. I guess Grandma had the last laugh this week, when I had to unravel a bunch of the scarf and go with a different plan. Here's a few other things I learned from my maternal grandmother:

There's something satisfying about keeping your hands busy.

People-watching results in some amazing sights.

Dance shows are entertaining. (She loved to watch "American Bandstand." I love "So You Think You Can Dance.")

A slice of chocolate chiffon pie can solve most problems. (Hers was the best.)

Good gravy is next to godliness. (Her gravy--like silk, so rich and full of flavor.)

Here is a photo of my grandmother when she was a teenager.

What did your grandmother teach you? A mind with a wounded buttocks wants to know...

My mom's mom taught me not to care what people think of me. "You'll never see most of these people again."

My dad's mom taught me about career choices. When she asked what Li'l Val wanted to be when she grew up, and was told either a schoolteacher or a nurse...Grandma, a member of the local school board, said, "I'll tell you right now, you'll make more money being a nurse."

My maternal grandmother taught me to appreciate the spiritual things, like sunrises & sunsets, and to tell the truth even when it's hard to say. My paternal grandmother taught me that I have no patience for sewing (and she had no patience for teaching me), and that romance novels are fun to read. Of course, back then it was all Georgette Heyer and Barbara Cartland. :)

My mom's mom died when I was just three or four, I think, but I feel like I learned so much from her. My mom had a million quotes, sayings, lines from poems, all from HER mom, that she passed on to me. And that I say, too, so I suppose my kids are technically learning from their great-grandmother! One of my favorite's has always been, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

I didn't really get that one when I was little, but boy, I sure get it now. :-)

I love the picture of your grandma as a teenager. It's such fun to look at old photos. My grandma was a quilting queen and her work was beautiful. Both grandmas were excellent cooks. I'll bet they could even make road kill into a gourmet dish.

I love the picture of your grandma as a teenager. It's such fun to look at old photos. My grandma was a quilting queen and her work was beautiful. Both grandmas were excellent cooks. I'll bet they could even make road kill into a gourmet dish.